Every Street's a Boulevard

A Weekend in New York:

Friday
Arrive around 3:00, get to Jason's place at about 4:30 (not bad!). After the preliminary catching-up, grab an early dinner at a little Mexican place (I'm still not at all convinced of the east coast's ability to make salsa, no matter the birthplace of the restaurant owners) and head out to MOMA to see an exhibit about the redefinition of color. (Yay Target's Free Fridays! It was jam-packed, but it still beats paying $20 for admission).

Then off to see The Homecoming. Creepy play, but very well-acted. I do like Raul Esparza.

After a long wait at the Chocolate Bar, a late second-dinner sadly, without chocolate. We finished too late to get some.

Walk back to Jason's place, then stayed up far later than we should talking. Thus,

Saturday
Begin by sleeping in, then walk to the farmer's market to shop for plants for Jason's place. He picked out some herbs and talked me into getting a shamrock. More about that plant (aka Sister Mary Catharine Teresa) later.

For breakfast/lunch, we grabbed some baked goods from across the street and duck into a matinée of "The Other Boleyn Girl". Afterwards, a stop in Barnes and Noble (the first one, it turns out, as well as one of the largest bookstores around) to browse the travel section. Jason's planning a South American excursion between the bar and starting his career, and I found a teach-yourself-Swahili book. Plus some others. Seriously, I'm addicted to books.

Back to his place to drop off our purchases, repot the plants, and change for the evening. We got dinner at The Pink Teacup, then went uptown to see Romeo and Juliet by Theater Breaking Through Barriers. It wasn't the best play I've ever seen, but it's one of my favorites. And the Mercutio (played by the actress who was playing Juliet) was unbelievably outstanding. Highly enjoyable, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this theatre company.

After the show we got dessert at an Italian bakery back in the Village, mostly so we could sit and talk about the show some more. We didn't stay up nearly as late talking as the night before, falling asleep around 1:30 am.

Sunday

Beng Easter, we celebrated by getting brunch at Jane. Jason got their French toast, which they somehow manage to make with a creme brulee coating. Delicious!

Then, we walked down towards Battery Park to see the Irish Potato Blight memorial. It's dedicated to world hunger, and it's actually a pretty cool memorial - a little hill from the moors in the middle of the financial district. Here's Jason looking hungry (ironic, I know, given our deliciously full stomachs):


The skies were beautiful - totally clear and blue, but it was dang cold with a biting wind. Still, we walked back to his place along the Hudson river, passing many joggers and finding this awesome statue park:















Cool statues, huh? Creepy-yet-charming, in a Miyazaki-kind-of-way. I loved it.

Once we got back to the NYU area, I got a hot chocolate and we sat in a park to people-watch. It was a delightful way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Around 2:00, I grabbed my bags and headed back to the airport. All in all, I couldn't ask for a better weekend away.